Despite record number of vacancies in first quarter, analysts warn fallout from US subprime crisis will hit Hong Kong this year
Economists and recruiters fear there will be a reduction in the number of jobs in Hong Kong this year.
Despite record job advertisements posted in the first three months of this year, their concerns are based on the economic woes in the United States. Economists have warned that the US is headed for recession, which some say may be prolonged.
Nevertheless, figures from the latest South China Morning Post/admanGo survey, which tracks job vacancies advertised in Hong Kong's six major recruitment publications on a monthly basis, showed that employers posted 76,111 job advertisements during the first quarter of this year.
This was up 18 per cent from 64,459 during the same period last year, and the highest for a first quarter since the data was first tracked in 2004.
Paul Tang Wing-shing, chief economist for the Bank of East Asia, attributed the growth in jobs to the strong domestic economy, and the fact that hiring usually lagged the rest of the market.
'Although the outlook for the United States market is not so good, and Hong Kong's export figures have been showing some slowdown, the domestic economic and the financial sector are still doing quite okay,' he said.